Office Depot sees wider 3Q loss, but beats Street

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) - Office-supply chain Office Depot Inc. on Thursday said its third-quarter loss widened on restructuring charges and a continued sales slump amid the recession.

But adjusted results beat Wall Street expectations.

The company said a pullback in spending by both consumers and small businesses on all items, especially large-ticket ones such as furniture and computers, hurt sales. The company also continued to reduce markdowns on some low-margin categories.

The loss available to common shareholders for the quarter ended Sept. 26 totaled $413 million, or $1.51 per share, compared with a loss of $6.7 million, or 2 cents per share in the same period last year.

Excluding one-time items, including charges related to restructuring, net loss was 8 cents per share.

Revenue fell 17 percent to $3 billion from $3.66 billion last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, predicted a loss of 10 cents per share on revenue of $3.07 billion. Analyst estimates typically exclude one-time items.

North American retail division sales fell 18 percent to $1.3 billion, hurt partly by having 117 fewer stores open than a year ago. Sales in stores open at least one year, a key retail metric, fell 14 percent in the quarter.

North American Business Solutions sales fell 16 percent to $880 million, while international sales fell 16 percent to $861 million. Without the effect of foreign currency, international sales fell 9 percent. The strong dollar weighs on international sales because those figures translate to fewer dollars.

Without the effect of foreign currency, total Office Depot sales fell 15 percent.

In premarket trading, Office Depot's shares fell 35 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $5.56.